|
|
 |
|
|
|
| Browse questions and answers on topics that are hot right now. |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
| Anesthesia: Who Is a Candidate? |
| By Pat Burke |
|
In general, if you are in reasonably good health, you are a candidate for outpatient anesthesia and surgery. The anesthesiologist will discuss the anesthesia best suited for you and its risks after obtaining information from you to evaluate your health. You will be interviewed (or may be asked to fill out a questionnaire) about medical conditions, allergies, medications and prior experiences to anesthesia, and laboratory tests may be ordered. If someone in your family has had any reactions to anesthetic drugs, tell your anesthesiologist, advises Tom Dosland, M.D., a board-certified anesthesiologist. “There are two conditions in particular that can be genetically transmitted, one of which can cause potentially fatal reactions to anesthesia,” he cautions.
And if you take herbal supplements it is important that you tell your anesthesiologist. Be honest if you smoke, drink or use any “recreational” drugs. These substances can have powerful interactions with anesthesia. Ask your doctor when you can safely resume taking any herbal medication following surgery.
Most often you will be instructed not to eat or drink anything for a specified period of time before your surgery. This is important advice to heed. “Some anesthetics suspend your normal reflexes so that your body's automatic defenses may not be working. For example, your lungs normally are protected from objects, such as undigested food, from entering them. However, this natural protection does not occur while you are anesthetized,” cautions the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA).
| |
|
|
